Shimon's Thoughts on Blogs as Personal KM Tools
Shimon Rura responds to Lilia Efimova's post about knowledge workers by discussing blogs as personal knowledge management tools. Well, it's obvious that I like what he has to say or else I wouldn't share it with you and point to it from here.
And so people simply care more about blogs than other KM tools. The boat of knowledge written down on the blog is lifted by the tide of person-centered writing and discussion. My little brain is trying to crank out a response related to group blogs/blogs with multiple authors/blogs in a group environment because I don't think I agree that what he says completely applies in those situations, but I can't quite think of how to word it. Perhaps something to that effect will be on the scratchpad later this evening.
By posting about Shimon here, I know I'm taking a slight risk of exposing our "top secret" blog because he easily finds things with his name in it. I thought not using his name in this post would just be silly. So, Shimon, if you find us here, congratulate yourself for being the first person in our little blogging group (besides Garrett) to find my sixth blog. You will probably find many useful and interesting things in this space, but we would appreciate it if you could keep our secret blogging space secret for a little while.
I think she's onto something. Blogs, unlike other "knowledge management" tools, center around a person. This is important because it gives individuals the freedom to post whatever they want. By eliminating the fear that something you care about doesn't belong in the system somewhere, the act of posting is always much closer at hand. You don't even have to ask yourself if something belongs—you get so used to writing things down on your blog that you instead have to wonder, when wouldn't I want to share this {idea, feeling, picture, tip, joke} with other people?
4 Comments:
Thanks for posting this. We're already not *top* secret, though. See the comments for http://asistkblogpanel.blogspot.com/2004/07/das-e-business-weblog-published-my.html and http://asistkblogpanel.blogspot.com/2004/07/into-blogosphere.html . Also, I get a kick out of being referred to as "a colleague."
I've been trying to formulate a post on this, but haven't really wrapped my mind around it yet. Plus, I can't remember all the places I've seen the pieces I'm trying to put together. Something like: blogging is personal, individual, egotistical(?, need a word with a positive connotation here) vs. wikis which are community, anonymous. In other words, the collaboration in blogs is the result of the concatenation of individual contributions. The whole of the blog is collaborative, but like a quilt, it's made of discrete, non-collaborative units (quanta?). Wikis are welded. None of this is meant to be negative, by the way.
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Christina, at 11:17 AM
It's funny for me to read your thoughts on blogs versus wikis because a Wikipedian (that's someone who's a hard-core contributor to Wikipedia) I met a few weeks ago has been talking to me about why wikis are better than blogs, how they're different, why he'd rather use a wiki for some things. I think a lot of it has to do with someone's mindset and which tool someone began using first and for what purpose.
I don't think what you've written is negative at all.
It's funny how in my own mind, I much prefer blogging and don't really get the wiki thing, but I can definitely see how wikis are good collaborative tools for some things. We're using one to do programming for the SLA Boston Chapter this year. Like blogs, wikis only work well if people remember to update and contribute to them.
I got so wrapped up in watching the women gymnastics competition last night, I forgot to respond to Shimon's post on the scratchpad. Oops.
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j, at 3:50 PM
Bill Ives picked up Shimon's post twice: on Portals and KM and in Frassle.
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j, at 4:01 PM
I keep hearing/reading people who either believe blogs provide the answers to "all of life's persistent questions" or wikis will save the world. Realistically, they both have places. A lot of people will toss something for lack of authority if it isn't signed; so, for them blogs are better because everything is signed. If you think about it, wikis are pretty much socialist. You're giving anonymously and contributing to a greater good with the hope of the "wisdom of crowds" or synergistic effects. It is (pretty much) working for Wikipedia. See also what Ives is saying today.
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Christina, at 8:56 AM
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